Geseelschaft



e. SCHNEIDERS. MINERAL OIL AND CARBOHYDROGEN GAS EXTRACTING PROCESS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT- 2, 1919.

1,418,097, Pate ntd May 30, 1922..

Ink/EMB 9 um-W BY AITD N 9/5 W 15W,- WV$$W UNITED, STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GOTTFRIED SCHNEIDER/S, OF BERLIN-FRIEDENAU, GERMANY, ASSIGNOR TO AKTIEN-GESEELSCHAFT EOS, OF GLARUS, SWITZERLAND.

MINERAL-OIL AND CARBOHYDROGEN-GAS EXTRACTING PROCESS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 30, 1922 Application filed September 2, 1919. Serial No.321,275.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Go'rrrnmn SoHNnronns, acitizen ofGermany, residingat Berlin- Friedenau, Kaiserallee 130, Germany, have invented certainnew and useful Improvements in Mineral-Oil and Carbohydrogen- GasExtracting Processes, (for which I have filed applications in GermanyJanuary 15, 1917, Patent No. 305,794, Germany March 15, 1918,'Patent No.1319,5 18 Ger extends over the end of the lining s of the many March 25,1918,.Patent No.'319,5 l9; Austria May 28 1918; Hungary June 3, 1918,Patent'No. 78,398; Rumania- July 5, 1918) and Idoihereby declare thefollowing to be a run, clear, and exact description of the invention,such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appartains tomake and use the same.

In bituminousvmineral deposits saturated with oil and containing largequantities of fire-damp the work of making drives or passages isscarcely possible, or it is, at least, so dangerous that a miner cannotreasonably be expected to take the risk of going into these places in anoil mine. The benzine gases that develop from the oil give rise tointoxication by benzine, and to vomiting, fainting, choking and otherbodily com plaints, whilst the carbo-hydrogen gases accompanying the oiland subjected to high pressure and in combination with the evaporatingbenzine, lead to the firing of the mine and explosion accidents thatprevent the miner from carrying out his underground mining work. Notonly do the gases and oils make the sojourn of persons almost impossiblein such mines, but extraordinarily high economical losses also arecombined with the evaporation of the oil and the escaping of the gaseswhich are larger the more the mine is ventilated.

The object of my invention is'to remove these drawbacks and the mannerin which this is accomplished will appear from the following descriptionand drawings in which my process is disclosed.

The figure represents a vertical section of a plant intended for theabove purpose.

From a shaft a, which has been sunk down to the oil-bearing layer ordeposit, or from the mouth of a drive, and in a manner similar to thedriven cylinder method in which a cylinder is pushed forward in making apassage or tunnel through a hill or mountain of loose stone, a movableair-dam 11 provided with door openings is pushed for ward in the depositduring the hollowing out of the drive I). The movable air-dam consistsof a wrought iron cylinder 0 which drive and is shut off from theunlined portion of the drive by an end plate or shield 0Z furnished witha door t or manhole through which the miners enter into the end sectionof the drive. From the drill holders 7 horizontal or slanting bore-holesare made in the deposit before the earth or material outside of theair-dam is removed. The cavities subjected to high gas pressure andcontaining mineral gas, and those containing oil, are first soughtthrough the said bore-holes and the gas and oil are conducted away andmade useful in the deposit during the drilling operations, the air-dam,which is fixed in position, preventing any frlee and undesirable escapeof the gas and 01 After the initial escape of gas and oil, thebore-holes, which extend to a great depth in the oil deposit, formtrickling ducts into which the oil still remaining in the depositpierced by the bore holes percolates, and through which it may trickleout. In order that these trickling ducts may not become choked orclogged up, they are preferably lined with perforated or filteringpipes. From the trickling ducts formed by the bore-holes the oil passesinto the space 71. beyond the air-dam and collects behind the end plated, whence it is removed through an opening in the plate It by a pump 2',Fig. 1, and pumped through a closed pressure pipe k to the surface ofthe ground. In order that the suction pipe u, the pump 71 and thepressure pipe I: may not be choked up by particles of sand taken in withthe fluid, the mouth of the suction pipe u is equipped with a sieve-likebasket which prevents any solid bodies from entering the suction pipe.

The pumping operation causes the air in the space it beyond the endplate to become more or less rarefied and this raretaction extends intothe boreholes. By this means the oil in the deposit, the pores of whichare filled like a sponge with oil, or which contains oil in fissures orcavities, is drawn from all parts in the neighbourhood of the boreholesand caused to enter the tickling ducts which these boreholes with theirfiltering pipes form. In order toincrease the tendency of the oil to Howinto the trickling ducts, compressed air or carbohydrogen gas may beinjected by an air compressor Z through some of the boreholes,especially those near the top oi the deposit, the connection betweenthese and the rarelied air being cut off by a packing ring or sleeve m.By this means compressed gases are made to exert pressure on the oil inthe mine so as to force it out of the pores of the de posit and into theboreholes that act as trickling ducts and whose ends are open and thusin connection with the suction chamber it. Thus all the oil in thedeposit within the neighbourhood influenced by the boreholes is causedto flow 01f through or by these holes.

After the oil behind the air-dam has all been pumped out, the air pump Zconnected to the space It is reversed and after the packing ring on isloosened the combustible gases present in the deposit are made to passthrough a pipe a into a gasometer 0 at the surface, whence they may betaken for use.

lVhen all the oil and gas in the deposit in the neighbourhood of theboreholes g has been completely removed, the manhole in the air-dam isopened and the rock is then passed through the door, the air-dam beingshifted forward and the lining of the drive extended as the excavationwork proceeds. This is continued until the gas and oil bearing depositto which the boreholes have not penetrated is reached, when thea'tore-described process (viz, the removal of gas and oil from thebituminous deposit, by boreholes made whilst protected by the movableair-dam) is repeated. llorizontal boreholes 7), the lig ure, may also bedrilled laterally into the oil deposit from finished portions oi thedrive which have been provided with a stone and concrete wall or lining.By these holes the oil and gas coi'itained in the deposits extendinglaterally from the drive are removed.

By the above process practically all of? the gas and flowing oil in thevicinity of the deposit c an be removed with negligible loss and with nodanger to the workers.

I claim:

1. The process of extracting mineral oil and carbohydrogen gas from oildeposits which process consists in making a passage through the porous,bituminous and gaseous deposit with the aid of an air-dam that isshifted into the deposit and that, being airtight, prevents dangerousgases and the oil from entering the .passage, and in removing the gasand oil from the deposit by means arranged in a space separated from thegaseous deposit by the said air-dam.

2. The process of extracting mineral oil and carbohydrogen gas from oildeposits which process consists in making a passage through the porous,bituminous and gaseous deposit with. the aid of an air-dam that isshifted into the deposit and that, being airtight, prevents dangerousgases and the oil from entering the passage, and in removing the gas andoil from the deposit by means of boreholes drilled into the deposit andby means arrangedin a space separated from the gaseous deposit by thesaid air-dam, in subsequently extending the passage by open: ing theair-dam, removing the gasless and oilless deposit and shifting theair-dam forward towards the deposit.

8. The processot extracting mineral oil and carbohyd rogen gas from oildeposits, such process consisting in making a passage through theporous, bituminous and gaseous deposit with the aid of an air-dam thatis shifted into the deposit and that, being airtight, prevents dangerousgases and the oil from entering the passage in drilling boreholes intothe oil-bearing deposit, in rare'tying the air in the space between thedeposit and the air-dam and in the said boreholes, and in removing thegas and oil from the deposit by means arranged in a space separated fromthe gaseous deposit by the said air dam.

4. The process of extracting mineral oil and carbohydrogen gas from oildeposits, such process consisting in making a passage through theporous, bituminous and gaseous deposit with the aid of an air-dam thatis shifted into the deposit and that, being air-tight, preventsdangerous gases and the oil from entering the passage in drillingboreholes into the oil-bearing deposit, in driving compressed gas intosome of said boreholes and thus driving the oily into the remainingboreholes, and in removing the gas and oil from the space adjacent tothe air-dam by means arranged in a space separated from the gaseousdeposit by the said air-dam.

5. The process of extracting mineral oil andcarbohydrogen gas from oildeposits, such process consisting in making a passage through theporous, bituminous and gaseous deposit with the aid of an air-dam thatis provided with a manhole and is shifted into the deposit and that,being air-tight, prevents dangerous gases and the oil from entering thepassage in removing the gas and oil from the deposit by means ofboreholes drilled into the deposit and by means arranged in a spaceseparated from the gaseous deposit by the said air-dam, subsequent- 1yopening the said manhole and in removing the gasless and oillessdeposit, and in extending the passage by shifting the air- 10 damforward towards the said deposit.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses;

GOTTFRIED SCHNEIDERS. Witnesses:

PAUL MAYER, E. HOLTZERN.

